The Alexandria Lyceum
[201 South Washington Street.]
Benjamin Hallowell, our Quaker pedagogue, was not content with improving
the minds of the young. He soon realized the necessity of furbishing up
the cranial contents of his associates.
An able propagandist, Hallowell set himself to interest his friends in
founding a lyceum. This was accomplished in 1834, just ten years after
his entrance as a schoolmaster. Naturally he was the first president and
naturally the early lectures were held in his school. Here the erudite
of the town were wont to gather to express themselves in lecture and
debate. Hallowell does not give the date of the actual building of the
lyceum, saying merely:
At length a lot was purchased on the Southwest corner of Washington
and Prince Streets, on which was erected a fine building, a little
back from the street, with a pediment front supported by four fluted
Doric columns with a triglyph cornice, and surrounded by an iron
railing, and a beautiful yard of flowers and ornamental shrubbery. In
this building was placed the Alexandria Library, and there was
besides, on the first floor a large reading room, and a room for a
cabinet of minerals, and specimens in Natural History. On the second
floor was a well arranged and handsome lecture room, with marble
busts of Cicero and Seneca, one on each side of the President's desk
and seat. In this room lectures were given by John Quincy Adams,
Caleb Gushing, Dr. Sewell, Samuel Goodrich (Peter Parley), Daniel
Bryan, Robert H. Miller, William H. Fowle and several others. I gave
the introductory lecture (which was published) and several others
afterwards. Attending the Lyceum was a very interesting and improving
way of spending one evening in the week (Third-day evening), and the
citizens would adapt their visiting and other arrangements so as not
to have them come on Lyceum evenings.[191]
Thus came into being one of the finest examples of the Classical Revival
in American architecture. When the portico was under construction,
bricks salvaged from old St. Mary's Catholic Church were used for the
columns (afterwards plastered). This is an interesting fact, but another
Quaker-Catholic relationship merits recalling here. Old St. Mary's
Church stood on South Washington Street on land donated by Robert
Townsend Hooe, a Quaker. Built in 1793, it was abandoned in 1826 when
the new church on Royal Street was opened, but the early graveyard which
adjoined the old church continues in use. A small detail this of the
bricks--yet it commemorates the friendly ties ever maintained in
Alexandria between the two congregations.
It was appropriate that the new lyceum should provide facilities for the
Alexandria Library Company, the city's first organization for the
advancement of learning dating back to 1794. Insight into the early
efforts to establish a library and the bid made for its public support
is revealed through announcements of the type which follow. This one
appeared in the local gazette for the year 1797:
ALEXANDRIA LIBRARY COMPANY
The President and Directors of the Alexandria Library Company
desirous of promoting the influence which they conceive eminently
calculated to diffuse useful knowledge, establish the morals of the
rising generation, and afford rational entertainment for a vacent
hour, earnestly recommend it to the attention and support of their
fellow citizens. The utility of a public circulating library is too
obvious to need arguments to demonstrate it. The friends of
Literature, of Virtue, and refinement of manners, will, no doubt duly
appreciate its value, and interest themselves in its advancement.
The addition of a number of valuable books has lately been made to
the former selections; to which the American edition of the
Encyclopoedia is directed to be super added as soon as it can be
procured.
The President and Directors have ordered a catalogue of all the books
in the library forthwith to be printed, with their respective prices
annexed; to which will be prefixed the existing laws of the company,
together with the names of all the actual subscribers to the
institution. As they can determine between real and nominal members
only by the fulfillment of their engagements, they solicit those who
are in arrears to come forward and pay their respective balances to
Samuel Craig, Treasurer, before the fifteenth of the next month,
otherwise their names will be omitted in the list and their shares,
agreeably to the condition, will be deemed forfeited to the company
without respect of persons. Also all such as incline to become
subscribers are desired to call on Mr. Craig on or before the above
date, and pay their subscriptions, that their names may be inserted
with the rest.
Signed by order
JAMES KENNEDY, Librarian.
That the Alexandria Library Company merited and met with cordial and
generous support is shown by the fact of its perpetuation to this day
within the structure of the Alexandria library system. The Library
Company has been called one of the "time-honored heirlooms of the
town."[192]
The Alexandria Library has had a nomadic existence from the time it was
called into existence in 1794 until it was moved into its new home on
Queen Street in 1937. At least five buildings other than the lyceum have
doubled for home during this period; but the lyceum is the first
location mentioned in the extant minutes of the company. The author
nostalgically hopes the lyceum may know a renaissance and that it may
again serve as the city's library and a historical museum.
Hallowell tells us that the books were housed on the first floor. His
autobiography also contributes an interesting note on the busts of
Cicero and Seneca which stood in the lecture room upstairs: "The marble
busts spoken of above," he added, "were purchased in Italy in the time
of Cromwell by one of the Fairfax family; they were brought to this
country by Lord Fairfax, and had come into the possession of Daniel
Herbert, whose mother was a Fairfax. I purchased them of him for the
price he asked (one hundred and twenty-five dollars), but permitted them
to remain in the Lyceum while it continued in operation." Benjamin
Hallowell served as president of the lyceum until 1842.
After the War Between the States, the lyceum was abandoned, the society
dissolved. The town was rife with rumors that a Negro organization was
making plans to acquire the building. By order of the court in 1867, the
stockholders of the Alexandria Lyceum Company were compelled to sell the
property. Advertisements were set up in the _Gazette_. W. Arthur Taylor
and Reuben Johnston were appointed commissioners, and having given
thirty days' notice of the time and place of sale, the building was
offered at public auction in front of the mayor's office on May 16, 1868
and "struck off" to John B. Daingerfield for the sum of $6,800.00, being
the highest bid. The sale was confirmed by the court and the deed
ordered executed, describing the lot of ground with buildings and
improvements, southwest corner of Prince and Washington Streets,
commonly called the Lyceum Hall, fronting on Washington Street 92 feet 7
inches and on Prince 101 feet 5 inches and bounded on the south by the
property of H.W. Vandergrift and on the West by Mr. Henry Daingerfield's
estate.[193] John Bathurst Daingerfield and his brother, Henry, owned
almost the entire square bounded by Prince, Duke, Columbus and
Washington streets, where now stands the Alexandria Hospital.
[Illustration: The old Lyceum and Library]
John B. Daingerfield turned the lyceum into a residence for his
daughter, Mary, at the time of her marriage to Captain Philip Beverly
Hooe, 17th Virginia Regiment, C.S.A. The house remained in the Hooe
family until 1900, when John Daingerfield Hooe and his wife, Mary, the
daughter of Colonel Arthur Herbert, sold the property to Sara J.
McGuire. In 1913 Mrs. McGuire transferred the property to her husband,
the late Dr. Hugh McGuire. The lyceum was used for many years as a
private residence by Dr. and Mrs. McGuire, and the interior has been
much changed. The exterior is quite untouched, triglyph cornice, Doric
columns, all well past the century mark. It stands today one of the best
examples of the Classical Revival in architecture, not only in
Alexandria but in America.
The corner of Prince and Washington Streets is hallowed ground to
Alexandria. From here the 17th Virginia Regiment, C.S.A., marched
gallantly off to war, and when the fighting and turmoil died, the
remnant of this regiment was wont to gather on Confederate Memorial Day
and hold services for those left behind on Virginia's bloody
battlefields. This custom continued long after the bronze monument of a
Confederate soldier was placed in the center of the street. If, today,
hurrying automobiles are forced to slow up to pass the circle enclosing
the Confederate warrior, it is well. For this spot, while marking a lost
cause, does not mark a forgotten one.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]